Mike Brown starred and bagged himself two tries as England ran out convincing 52-11 winners against Italy in the Stadio Olimpico.

England knew that points were the order of the day, and tries from Mike Brown (2), Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell , Mako Vunipola, the returning Manu Tuilagi and skipper Chris Robshaw, as well as seven Farrell conversions and a Farrell penalty handed England a dominant victory.

However, they must now turn their attentions to Paris tonight, hoping for a favour from France - any victory for Ireland will take the championship to the Emerald Isle, rather than Twickenham.

A cagey opening saw Italy dominate possession and draw first blood with a long-range penalty from Luciano Orquera that was greeted with a mighty roar by the sell-out 80,000 crowd.

England struggled to build momentum in the face of resolute Azzurri defending and a promising move broke down when Michele Campaigner intercepted a pass intended for Luther Burrell.

However, Owen Farrell levelled the score with a penalty and England were immediately back on the offensive, rapidly spinning the ball left and right as they probed for weaknesses.

A brilliant offload from Burrell pierced Italy's defence with the Northampton centre's pass out of a tackle by Gonzalo Garcia finding Mike Brown, who switched on the afterburners and raced over.

(Photo: Action Images)

The promising start continued with Farrell converting Brown's try and an Italian backs move being swept into touch, only for a succession of unforced errors to then crept into the game.

Campagnaro took advantage of Burrell being caught out of position to break free amid a promising start to the second half from Italy, but England were soon back on the offensive.

The tempo was lifted but passes were failing to stick, number eight Ben Morgan knocking on at full tilt and Vunipola spilling forward.

Burrell went within a whisker of scoring but the ball was kicked from his grasp by an unconventional late tackle made out of hope rather than expectation.

Italy's problems mounted when Marco Bortolami was sin-binned for offside and soon after their whitewash was breached for a fourth time, Nowell rounding off a backs move at a scrum.

Adding to their woes was the 53rd-minute arrival of Tuilagi from the bench, and he, Nowell and Vunipola all punished lax defending to net a try apiece.

It was then the visitors' turn to blunder, however, with wing Leonardo Sarto picking off an intercept try from Joe Launchbury's pass.

Farrell was lucky to escape a yellow card after tackling Edoardo Gori around the neck and then pulling him to the ground amid a frustrating end to the match for England.

The flow of tries had dried up, but there was still time for one more with captain Chris Robshaw taking Farrell's injury-time pass and coasting over.